1972 Dodge Demon AA/FC

The history of the Ramchargers AA/FC is arguably the history of injector stacks, contemporary ideas about weight distribution, the A/FX class, Funny Cars, the 426 Hemi, and an unknowable string of inventive ideas that leached into racing in the 1960s and early 1970s. Tom Hoover, a young and curious engineer working for Chrysler was ground zero. Through his efforts and education, he was allowed access to the Chrysler Institute, where he learned about Walter P. Chrysler's foundation of good engineering. He also met other young engineers with the belief that Chrysler should be winning drag races, or more correctly, street races on Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

While exploring Chrysler's Engine Room, Hoover witnessed the accidental invention of the ram tube and something larger than any one man was jolted into motion.

2/20

Hoover and his contemporaries formed the Ram Chargers (the name was later compressed to Ramchargers by Hot Rod magazine) in order to utilize ram tube technology, tuned headers, and weight distribution to defeat the dominant Chevrolets at the dragstrip. In 1959, the Ramchargers campaigned the Ram Rod, a 1949 Plymouth business coupe with a 354-inch Hemi from Chrysler salvage, at the NHRA Nationals. The car had bristling stacks and a tangle of headers that lent a crawling form crammed with function. The name was later changed to The High and Mighty, after a popular movie by the same name.

Experiments with the Plymouth led to a string of innovations that are considered standard for modern drag racing. As the team grew and expanded into other forms of racing, they experimented with nitro and even hydrazine to get more pop from their Hemis. Combine the altered-wheelbase theory with a nitro-huffing Hemi, and the Funny Car was off its chain. A string of exceedingly dangerous and violent machines erupted from this union with gas-mask clones at the wheel. Beautiful atrocities like the torque-reaction-cancelation 1967 Candymatic Dart could wheelie through the lights with everything off the ground but the trunk lid as it shrieked over the finish line. The Ramchargers Top Fuel rail and the Miss Chrysler Crew Unlimited Hydroplane washed the country in red and white stripes, orange fumes, and adrenaline. The world-record e.t.s were dropping like a countdown to something big, like a Hemi Challenger and the first ever 6-second run at the U.S. Funny Car Nationals at New York National Speedway. The Ramchargers Challengers dominated in 1970–71 with 6.80-second timeslips, at least two-tenths faster than the rest of the field. At the end of 1971, driver Leroy Goldstein retired and started a family, ending the Challenger's dominance. In a fast decade, the Ramchargers had changed the face of drag racing with records and innovations in almost every class. From 1972–73, they raced what would be the final Ramchargers Funny Car, a 1972 Dodge Demon. Clare Sanders retired, and a new driver named Dick Rosberg crashed the car in Michigan in 1973. The car disappeared for the next 36 years.

3/20

In 2010, the car was identified and recovered by John Denski. It had been purchased in the early 1970s by a racer named Stan Rosen, who painted and campaigned it under the name Ego Trip. The car and parts were shuffled as it was raced until the entire lot loosely assembled again as the Ramchargers F/C and ended up on eBay. John was looking but lost the bid to a sniper who was interested in the car as a publicity piece. John watched closely and picked the car up when the business deal fell through. As a racer, John campaigned it as an Altered with a supercharged Keith Black 496-inch Hemi on alcohol, before shopping the car to Mopar collector Steve Atwell, and then finally passing it along to Jim Matuszak for preservation.

Current owner Jim Matuszak bought the car from Atwell and began the restoration. The chassis was sent to Funny Car builder Al Bergler for assembly, and the body was sent to Jason Enos of Caro, Michigan. "John Denski found the Ego Trip name under the paint, then the original Ramchargers stripes, and even Tom McEwen's Mongoose written on the front spoiler," Jim says. After determining the car's authenticity, Jim contacted Clare Sanders, Ed Shaider, and Dorne Rigby to locate as many original parts as possible.

Clare picks up the story: "I was driving the Chi-town Hustler in 1970 for Farkonas, Coil & Minick, as the car was getting famous, and they had a lot of bookings," Clare says. "Arnie Behling was driving for the Ramchargers, when it was an evil-handling thing, and shut if off a couple of times, so [Phil] Goulet got rid of him."

7/20

Phil called Clare and asked if he wanted to drive the 1972 Dodge Demon Ramchargers car. "That wild handling didn't make sense to me, so Dorne and I jacked the car up to measure chassis pre-load. We noticed that the torsion bar was off, two splines off," Clare says. "After that, the car went down the track predictably even in a drift with the tires spinning."

The Demon went to Indy with Clare driving but dropped a cylinder and lost the race. "That was the one NHRA national event," Clare says. "There were few national sponsors, little TV coverage, and the NHRA events didn't pay appearance money. When you wanted ink [in the magazines], you ran in the NHRA." The IHRA and AHRA did pay, so in 1972, the Ramchargers raced Mickey Thompson in the IHRA Summer Nationals, beating him and breaking the 230-mph speed record in Funny Car by using a taller gear. The Demon also broke the track record at Detroit Dragway that year with a 6-second run.

When Clare was contacted about the restoration, he had plenty of information about the original car. "I made the equidistant port nozzle lines," Clare says. "Phil Goulet was persnickety about details. He wanted everything the same, and he noticed that the fuel lines were different lengths and thought it would impede flow. The driver didn't have much to do back then, so I had the free time to make the lines out of stainless steel." Clare also serviced the clutch and rearend on the original car and made the unique gas pedal and shifter to suit his driving style. The parts were later found in a crate and restored by Al Bergler.

8/20

During the winter of 1973, pressures from Congress forced the automakers out of racing. During the crunch, Clare moved to California to work for Snap-on Tools, ending his professional driving career.

Ed Schaider was competing in Super Stock in 1967–69 with a Plymouth two-door lightweight 426-inch Max Wedge in the NHRA SS/DA class and later a 2 percent Dodge Coronet 330 with a 426 Hemi, which ran in NHRA SS/BA.

"I needed some engine work and decided since the Max Wedge was named after the Ramchargers, why not have them work on it?" Ed says. He took all the parts to Detroit and walked in the front door of the Ramchargers' store in Taylor, Michigan, and met Leroy Palarchio, one the original Ramchargers, and contracted them to build engines for his Super Stock campaign.

Ed also had a passing interest in Pro Stock, but when the rules began to change, he looked to other forms of racing. At a fuel hydro show on the Detroit River, Ed first heard a nitro engine. "That's how a race engine oughta sound," Ed says. It was a pivotal moment when Ed decided to go nitro racing in a Top Fuel car.

12/20

Ed talked to Phil Goulet and Leroy about the idea of buying a fuel engine from the Ramchargers, and they both thought he was nuts. "You have no frame of reference to own, operate, drive, or care for one of these cars," was the reply. About two hours later, a bargain had been struck. If Ed would apprentice with them for a year, they would build him an engine. Ed simply said, "Where do I sign up?"

Ed spent a year with the Ramchargers, learning about fuel racing. At the end of that year, there was a motor built and waiting. Ed met Phil, Clare, Alan Gillis, and Dan Knapp and installed the engine in an AA/Fuel dragster. The car was crashed shortly after at Dragway 42, ending the campaign.

13/20

When Jim started the restoration, he turned to Ed Schrader to find the original parts. Fortunately, most of the original engine parts from the Ramchargers dragster were still in Ed's garage now in Gilroy, California. He had magnetos, BRC connecting rods, blower, and manifold, and he was able to find additional parts and make them available. "It was Dorne Rigby that put the parts together," Ed says. "Clare and I were pieces guys."

In 1971, Jay Howell of Prock and Howell (Warhorse AA/FC) was Dorne Rigby's neighbor. Through this stroke of luck, Dorne had access to the cars and the people around the Ramchargers and soon moved from Gratiot Auto Supply to the newest Ramchargers store in Warren, Michigan, to work the parts counter. During the off-season, the Ramchargers Demon was stored there, and Dorne spent a lot of time with the car.

14/20

Dorne remembered, "Clare drove the car in 1972 and 1973. I went to Indy, the Gators, Dragway 42, and many other match races...if the race was close to the area, I got to work on the car in the pits; Alan Gillis or Phil Goulet would give me jobs like laying down VHT and backing the car up."

Dorne continues, "If the car was crashed, it would be repaired in a day, so they used whatever body they had. The car was a Demon but got a Duster body in its last year. This was common practice. It's hard to say how many times the body was changed or repaired as racing went on—maybe two or three times? It was easier to paint in a Demon grille on the Duster for the car. The last version, as it was raced in 1974, was driven by Dick Rosberg, before it was retired, as you see it here."

Jim Matuszak asked Dorne to be the project manager on the restoration and make it as exact as possible. As Jim and Dorne chased parts, Dorne Rigby handed parts to Al Bergler. He was chasing down the previous owners and searching through pole barns to find parts for the restoration. Driving hundreds of miles, tracking guys like Alan Gillis who was a mechanic on the original car, Dorne uncovered incredible pieces of history. "The rearend is a Ramchargers Dana 60, and the pig is made of magnesium," Dorne says. "The Logghe chassis still has the bump for the two Lee Eliminators oil filters." Regular oil filters would burst, so the bright-pink Lee HP filters were used on the car. "I think the lime-green and pink psychedelic patterns on the Lee oil filter packaging were something left over from the hippie generation." The dual-filter mount has an original Ramchargers name cast into it. They also found the two-speed Lenco drive with Clare's unique foot shifter. These parts were found in Canton, Michigan.

"The rear wheels are E/T 16x13 one-piece spun aluminum that were built for professional racers in that era. Around 1972, the Cragar Super Trick came out as bolt-together part that was cheaper and lighter, and they could also be anodized or polished, so E/T stopped making these," Dorne says.

18/20

They were also lucky enough to find parts from Della Woods, who had an original Ramchargers oil pan. The pan had been discarded in a corner, while the Woods team was swapping parts, and hadn't moved in 40 years. Dan "Hawkeye" Van Auken, who originally built all the Ramchargers oil pans and valve covers, was kind enough to build another set of valve covers.

Al Bergler Race Car Bodies in Shelby Township, Michigan, received the parts, and Al began to piece the car together using the original sheetmetal. His experience with the original car was the foundation for the work. "Over the years, other teams had welded a bunch of other parts onto the car and added a six-point cage in an attempt to update the car. I had to take all that off," Al says. "It has the original chrome-moly cage and Dana rearend, and the chassis is from Logghe, same as the Motown Shaker Funny Car."

19/20

The Hemi has a new World Products block that uses a new "3⁄8" stroke crank (for 484 inches), but most of the rest of the parts are surprisingly original. Ed kept rare pieces like the magneto, the Danekas supercharger, the manifold, and even the camshaft. The original rods were anodized red by Phil Goulet and were found and used in the new engine. All these parts were meticulously restored and assembled into a running nitro Hemi.

The car was restored and repainted using the original paint codes and colors from the 1972 livery. Through a remarkable chain of events and with the drive and vision of Jim and Julie Matuszak, this AA/FC was able to live again. Rules prevent it from racing, but it is going to be toured as a cackle car in the summer. For more information, go to RamchargersFunnyCar.com.